Magical Hogwarts

Morning of Sunday, 7th November 2004

Did mousquetaires always have this much to do? Honoré didn't think so. It was definitely a special year at Beauxbatons and not all of it was good. He liked the arts initiative although it did not offer something he wanted to do every month. He had not gone to any choir practices (despite the fact that he loved music and actually sang along when he played his guitar) and for the topic for the second month, drawing, he had not really found the time. After all, with the sightings of a strange species of a spider and the death of a Granian horse after a spider's bite, the mousquetaires had been on patrol a lot, leaving them very little free time between classes and those duties.

Since his family was in the magical camera business, Honoré was determined to make the most of the "photography month", though. To his great pleasure Julien, the Papillonlisse mousquetaire, seemed to be equally interested in the arts initiative this month and so the boys had chosen to meet and take some pictures (while still keeping their eyes open in case they'd be needed).

They had decided to meet in the grounds in front of the castle and while Honoré waited for the other boy, he pulled up the collar of his coat. It was never really cold in the South of France but today it was rather windy and a little cool. Not many people were out yet. Most were probably still having breakfast or chilling in the cosy common rooms.

"Salut Julien," he greeted the Papillonlisse as the other boy stepped out to join him. "With the current limitations I wonder where we should go to take photos." The stables were out of bounds for students now but also of little interest now that the horses had been brought to a safer place. They weren't supposed to go into the greenhouses without an adult either. "We can always try our luck with portraits," he said, "but you'll have to play the model." Honoré wasn't vain and didn't enjoy being in front of the camera. He was a skilled photographer, though, and had sometimes taken portraits of family and friends in the past.

When Honoré asked if he’d wanted to meet up for the photography-themed Arts Initiative this month, Julien had leapt at the chance. Between Quidditch, increased Mousquetaire duties, and keeping up with O.W.L.-level coursework, the Sixth Year was beginning to feel a bit worn down – and it was only the third month of term. He enjoyed photography and was glad it was the focus for this month (choir was decidedly not his thing, at least not publicly): a distraction would be welcome.

The air was crisp and clear as he stepped out onto the grounds, and he instinctively drew his jacket a bit closer around him. It was eerily quiet, even for this time of morning; the spiders’ presence had flushed out much of the local wildlife, and Julien could hardly blame the latter. He had a ‘live-and-let-live’ type of philosophy when it came to the vast majority of creepy-crawlies, even though he was not particularly fond of any of them… but giant Granian-killing spiders might just be where he drew the line.

Spotting his friend a short distance away, Julien raised a hand in greeting and moved towards him. Honoré wondered aloud about their options, and Julien raised a shoulder uncertainly. They were a bit limited, given the circumstances…

“We can always try our luck with portraits, but you’ll have to play the model.”

Julien chuckled nervously. The whole Mousquetaire business was helping a little, but he still hated to be put on-the-spot.

“Well, uh, that wouldn’t be very nice to the camera,” he joked feebly. “We could do… landscapes? Or a still-life, maybe,” he added, warily eying one of the massive spiderwebs suspended in the canopy at the edge of the forest. He had to admit that the webs did have sort of an ethereal beauty to them, unnerving as they were.

Honoré shrugged when Julien voiced that he didn't like the idea of playing the model for him. He could relate to that but that didn't mean that he wouldn't have found it fun to try and take some really nice photos of him. In fact, Honoré felt not quite prepared to give up yet.

"I think the camera wouldn't mind," he offered with a one sided grin. "Honestly though, I'm sure I could make you look good in a portrait. Don't you think it would be cool to have a picture of yourself from your student days to later show your kids?"

Okay, maybe he was going a little far with this but he wished he had some more pictures of his parents - no matter if from their student days or from their last year. He missed them terribly much and there were times when he went through old photographs, feeling that none adequately showed them. They didn't quite look like he had seen them. He had a few pictures of them that he had taken himself but there weren't many that lived up to his own expectations. He could have done so much better, captured their personalities better and found a nicer setting to place them in. Then again, his parents had never had the time to actually pose for him. Now it was too late anyway. He could not take the perfect photo of them anymore.

He followed Julien's gaze and frowned. "They've come quite close to the castle, haven't they? It's worrying." He paused briefly and then added, "the spider webs are an interesting motive, though. Hard to capture in a good way but once you do they are gorgeous." He tilted his head a little and nodded to himself. He had found a good angle but he wasn't sure if he wanted to document the dangers that they dealt with at Beauxbatons.

Julien was a self-conscious type; his self-esteem wasn’t terrible, but he certainly wouldn’t describe it as ‘high’. Honoré was clearly being kind and a good friend, but the Papillonlisse had no idea how to respond. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, as though he could physically scrub away the prickle of embarrassment.

His future kids? Merlin, he could hardly take care of himself at the moment…

But then he remembered what might have prompted Honoré to say that specifically, and bit his tongue. It wasn’t the most pleasant thought, but Julien could appreciate the sentiment and where the Ombrelune was coming from.

Fortunately he was spared from commenting further, as his friend had followed his gaze to the gargantuan webs and wore a similar expression of trepidation.

“Yeah,” he agreed simply, a shiver running down his spine at the prospect of the eight-legged creatures encroaching further. Worrying, indeed. Were the creatures in the forest (Merlin help them) no longer satisfying them? Were they moving on to bigger prey…? Passing underneath any type of overhang already made him wary, nowadays – what if one was lying in wait, ready to spring a trap?

He gulped audibly at the thought.

“Yeah,” he repeated stupidly, beginning to seriously regret his suggestion the longer he dwelled on it. Honoré seemed to not entirely reject the idea, though, and in a panic Julien flung out a half-baked alternative.
“Ah… what about down by the beach? We can play with the exposure, and reflections in the tidepools. And silhouettes.”

If Honoré was going to insist on photographing him, better a silhouette than a true portrait. He just hoped the spiders hadn’t decided to move into the caves along the shoreline…

 The spiders made their life at Beauxbatons so much harder than it had used to be. Especially as mousquetaires the two boys couldn't ignore that something was wrong. They were patrolling the corridors of the castle in the evenings just as the members of staff did. Everybody had this concerned expression on their face like a mask that was glued to their skin.

"I wish they'd already find a way to get rid of the spiders," Honoré said. "I think they're even considering just to kill them but they're not easy to kill, it seems."

Julien didn't seem to like the idea of staying near a spider web and Honoré, while somehow intrigued by the neat web, felt that it would probably really be better to get away from the school for a bit.

"Sure, that sounds like a good plan," he agreed, "we could also do double exposures or something like that." His family was in the magical camera business. He was actually the heir to this business and he had experimented so much with cameras already. He liked the double exposures, they gave a picture something really mystic and special.

"Did you get to patrol the Papillonlisse tower last night?" Honoré asked as they headed towards the beach "I've been astonished to find third years in the staircase of the Ombrelune tower after curfew."

Julien nodded in emphatic agreement, then shuddered when Honoré mentioned they weren’t easy to kill.
“Yeah, evidently not. Don’t remind me,” he joked feebly. Normal-sized spiders? Not their biggest fan, but Julien was a live-and-let-live kind of guy. But Mastiff-sized spiders? Yeah… no thanks.

“Double-exposures?” he asked, intrigued (and grateful to latch onto a non-arachnid topic). Julien was interested in photography enough to get an amateur camera and dabble with it a bit – but he didn’t actually know much beyond a few buzzwords.

Honoré asked if he’d patrolled the night before, and Julien averted his gaze guiltily. He probably should have – but, honestly, he didn’t much see the point of patrolling within his own House tower. Outside of the tower, sure, that made sense…
“Have you? Huh. I… hadn’t noticed that,” he replied, the pebbled ground crunching under their shoes as they approached the shoreline. “Most people seem to stick to the common room if they’re going to be out-of-bed after-hours. From what I’ve seen, at least. Haven’t caught anyone out-of-bed in the corridors yet – may be that people still have some sense.”

Merlin, but Honoré did have a point about the towers. The common rooms were safeguarded by passwords, but the entire towers themselves weren’t necessarily. Fortunately, there hadn’t been word of any student attacks so he couldn’t really have missed anything crucial…

They were sixth years now and as such should have the knowledge to handle a lot of magical beings already. Having to accept that not only they couldn’t fight these spiders but that even their professors hadn’t found a way to get rid of the beasts was worrying and while Honoré would have discussed the topic further, he understood that Julien was eager to steer the conversation elsewhere.

“Yeah, double-exposures,” Honoré confirmed. “You basically use the same part of the film for two images. You cannot really know how it turns out but it’s actually quite fascinating.” Honoré liked the technic, it was interesting to pick two motives and put one on top of the other and then wait and see what came out of it. He had experimented, putting writing on top of a landscape picture and it had looked rather cool.

“Mhmm,” Honoré said when the Papillonlisse mousquetaire said that most people stuck to their common rooms. “Most do,” he agreed. “However, some don’t.” He rolled his eyes and then shook his head. “Honestly, the other day I caught two third years in a corridor and they admitted they were out there on a dare can you believe it?”

The kids should be warned already but some were still not taking this all seriously. “What do you think they need to understand that this is not the time to step out of line? I mean, does a student need to get killed before they realise that these spiders are really dangerous?” Honoré had a rebellious streak himself but he was not so stupid to rebel against sensible orders and, admittedly, he had mellowed ever since his parents’ death.

He filed away the bit on double-exposures for later research and experimentation – perhaps he could find an example somewhere to better understand the end result. Or perhaps they’d collect a good setup for it after today’s session.

Julien shook his head slowly in disbelief as Honoré described how he’d encountered two Third Years out on a dare. His Yearmate had a point; being a Mousquetaire had reminded Papillonlisse of just how reckless the younger Years could be, especially in contrast with how (comparatively) risk-averse he himself had been at that age.

“I mean, does a student need to get killed before they realise that these spiders are really dangerous?”

“I would seriously hope not. Maybe. But even that might not scare some people enough.” He sighed, dragging his fingers through his curls. “I think… people tend to think they’re invincible, that the bad stuff only happens to other people. Like, it only hits home if they themselves get seriously hurt.”
The mere thought of that was enough to stress him out; he couldn’t imagine needing to actually experience something catastrophic to fully grasp its potential impact.
“And, of course, people respond differently to threats and fear – some people always feel like they’ve got something to prove, you know? And it messes with your judgment.”
A few of their peers came to mind, at that, and he was sure Honoré would think of those same people.

“Agreed,” Honoré said with a frown. “I don’t get how they can be so reckless in the current situation.”

Honoré actually wondered how long the school would still be open in the current situation. He didn’t want Beauxbatons to be closed or relocated or whatever else was on the table to get out of the situation at hand, but there was no denying that things were spinning out of control.

“Yeah,” the Ombrelune agreed, “some people are like that. However, even they have to understand that this is not the time to challenge each other with dares or whatnot.”

They were getting closer to the beach now and although it was November, there were plenty of people around. The weather was nice enough anyway and the light was impressive. Rays of sunlight always found their way through the clouds and shone down on the glistening sea.

Honoré sighed. The beauty of nature still always caught him unexpectedly. “Isn’t this just beautiful?” he asked, lifting his camera and taking a photo. “No matter how good you are as a photographer, I feel you never manage to capture nature exactly the same way you experience it with your own senses.”